4 month old lies awake at bedtime! Should I let him?

[ScarletBegonia1234]

I have a 4 month old baby who sleeps next to me in a couple sleeper cot. He is ebf and I am pretty happy with our sleep routine as it stands; he sleeps from 9ish until 7.30ish with a feed at around 2 and 5.30 usually.

I have up until now fed him to sleep which I am trying to stop doing, however if I put him down drowsy but awake he just lies there! He doesn't cry....he is happy but doesn't sleep!I have left him for 30 mins or so and he is still awake.... eventually I gave in and put him back on the boob and he fell straight to sleep!

Any advice on how to break this cycle? Should I just leave him in the cot if he's happy (I'm right next to him reading)?I suppose I'm worried that if he spends too much awake time in the cot he might not see it as the place for sleep so might make things worse!

If he's happy leave him perhaps try a dummy if you think he needs to suck to fall asleep

I think what he's doing is really good and I'm sure he'll change routineof his own accord soon. He's only 4m and lies quietly amusing himself. Joy?

If you had just left him maybe? Would he have dropped off by himself?

If he's not winging leave him, he will hopefully learn to go to sleep by himself.

If he's happy I'd leave him. All babies have to learn to go to sleep by themselves eventually and let's face it, even as adults, we don't always fall asleep immediately. Lying quietly in a cot sounds perfect to me! What you don't want him thinking is that if he's awake it's a problem and he has to be doing something.

THanks very much for your responses! I did wonder whether leaving the room might help...I might sit on the landing tonight and see what happens!

Mine is 4m and tonight just wouldn't go to sleep - just like you I normally feed her to sleep and put her down, tonight she is just awake. I left her in her cot sucking a toy's ear and she just sucked away for about 5 minutes and has just started to cry.

This is all a first because my DD1 always fell asleep during her evening feed! So never had this quiet awake stage!

Hmmmm I feel your pain catellington! 15 mins of laughing / cooing in his cot while I hid outside (the things we do! ) before he started to cry...not full on screaming just grumbling and shouting. I'm now feeding him again which is likely the worst thing I can do but he's a very hungry baby so never turns down a feed. Which makes it hard to be sure he's full or not! Going to try again now but with me in the other side of the bed facing away so he knows I'm near! Wish me luck!

Ooh I wouldn't feed him again I would just hope he fell asleep on his own. I was really consious of this with ds as dd would only ever feed to sleep and for wake ups. It became a nightmare. So with ds I left him to it and he could self settle from really on. I personally wouldn't recommend feeding them as soon as they squeak as it got us in a right pickle (and dd with terrible wind as I was over feeding her).

I think you are right mewkins...that's what I'm trying to avoid! He went down awake and grumbled a bit and flailed about a bit which I ignored while lying next to his cot but after 10 mins has just put himself fully to sleep! Without me patting or anything! He'll probably wake up in 5 minutes so I'm going to savour this moment while it lasts! !!